U.S. to fund Afghan forces at peak level through 2017: officials
CAMP DAVID, Md. (Reuters) – The United States will keep funding Afghan security forces at the targeted peak personnel level of 352,000 at least through the 2017 fiscal year, extending a financial commitment that has cost about $4 billion annually, U.S….
Tsipras, Merkel display goodwill, little sign of debt progress
BERLIN (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel put on a public display of mutual goodwill on Monday, appealing to Greeks and Germans to set aside recrimination and national stereotypes and work for a better E…
In Tunisia’s tourist heartland, anxious wait after attack
YASMIN HAMMAMET, Tunisia (Reuters) – The European visitors strolling Tunisia’s Hammamet resort are an encouraging sign for a government determined to minimize the fallout of last week’s shooting of 20 tourists in the nearby capital.
U.N. watchdog says progress limited on Iran nuclear inquiry
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.N. atomic watchdog has had limited progress in its inquiry into possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear activities, the agency’s chief said on Monday, days ahead of an approaching deadline for a framework deal betwee…
Kenyan schoolboys save girls from rape after learning ‘no means no’
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The schoolboy watched as a man tried to remove the nappy of a little girl he was dragging along a Nairobi riverbank, suspecting that he was going to rape her.
Netanyahu tells Israel’s Arabs he ‘regrets’ election-day rallying call
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he regretted offending Israel’s Arabs during a rallying call on election day last week that his critics had denounced as racist.
U.S., allies conduct 14 air strikes against Islamic State: task force
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and its coalition allies have staged eight air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and six in Iraq since early on Sunday, the Combined Joint Task Force overseeing the operations said in a statement …
World’s first academy for humanitarian aid puts locals on the frontline
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Training 100,000 aid workers and volunteers in more than 50 countries as first responders to local disasters and conflicts could “revolutionize the aid sector”, the head of the world’s first academy for humanitaria…
South Syrian rebels say Assad foes are supplying more arms
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Mainstream rebels in southern Syria say foreign states have stepped up weapons supplies to them since Damascus launched an offensive early last month to regain the frontier zone near Jordan and Israel.
Punishment for Spain’s Rajoy in regional vote signals tough election year
MADRID (Reuters) – Voters in southern Spain dealt a blow to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s hopes of winning a second term this year on the strength of the country’s economic recovery, abandoning his center-right Popular Party for upstarts and the oppos…
